


On Your Way to Being Found

by newdog14



Category: Gotham Academy (Comics), Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Miraculous, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Gotham Academy, MariBat, Maribat March, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Deserves Happiness, spoilers for early issues of Gotham Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:20:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29791803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newdog14/pseuds/newdog14
Summary: Marinette was lost.Not physically; she knew her exact geographical location was Gotham Academy, specifically her new dorm room, which would be her new home for the foreseeable future. But emotionally, Marinette was adrift at sea without the slightest idea of how to get back to shore, back to herself.For Maribat March Day 1: Found Family
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: Maribat March





	On Your Way to Being Found

Marinette was lost.

Not physically; she knew her exact geographical location was Gotham Academy, specifically her new dorm room, which would be her new home for the foreseeable future. But emotionally, Marinette was adrift at sea without the slightest idea of how to get back to shore, back to  _ herself _ . She’d spent so long just trying to push back against Lila’s slander and not being believed, it made her wonder if there might be some truth to it all that she couldn’t see.

She had tried so hard to show the class Lila’s lies, to get them to see the truth, but she’d been rash instead of cautious and her accusations only ever seemed to lend more credence to Lila’s claims. Marinette should have kept out of it, kept her head down, as she’d done with Chloé for so many years, but Alya had been bringing her out of her shell, helping her step into a confidence that she hadn’t known she possessed. She’d thought standing up to Lila was her best course of action.

She’d been wrong. She’d been so, so wrong, about so many things. About trying to take on Lila, about keeping the bullying from her parents, about assuming that Lila couldn’t do any  _ real _ damage to her life. Then she’d been expelled. Then her parents didn’t understand why she would keep it from them if she were being bullied, she’d always told them about Chloé, after all. Lila hadn’t wasted any time on convincing them that it was because  _ Marinette _ was the bully this time. 

It was her Nonna who had suggested sending her to Gotham Academy. She had spent a semester there as an exchange student in her youth, and she thought that a change in scene would do Marinette some good. Her parents thought that a structured environment would help straighten her out. Marinette just felt untethered. She was so far from everything she’d ever known, she felt disconnected from the person she’d once been. How could she ever go back to who she’d been, now that she knew that was a person who no one had any faith in?

“So are you gonna be doing this moping thing  _ all  _ year? Because if so I’m gonna need you to take that somewhere else,” her roommate said. Sneered, more like. Marinette looked over at the other girl in surprise, then shrugged and busied herself with unpacking.

“Sorry, Pomeline,” Marinette answered. Pomeline was...well, Marinette didn’t really know much about the girl, except for that she didn’t seem to like Marinette. At all. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d done to upset the other girl so much, but everything she did seemed to annoy her new roommate. Marinette finished tucking her things away and floundered for a moment, then ultimately decided to go exploring, just to get out the room.

She didn’t know her way around campus very well yet, and because she was coming in as a second year she didn’t have the same resources that first years got, but she’d gotten pretty good at being independent. So she set about looking around the different buildings; she located her classes, the cafeteria, and the library. The school was huge and dark and gloomy; it was little wonder that the most prevalent bit of gossip anyone talked about was how it must be haunted.

Marinette stayed away from the dorms for as long as she could, but eventually it was near enough to curfew that she had no choice to go back. Pomeline was reading a book about summoning ghosts, and in light of everything Marinette had overhead that day…

“Pomeline?” Marinette asked, nervous to interrupt the girl but also hopeful that perhaps they could find a bit of common ground. Her roommate frowned at her when she looked up, but she wasn’t ignoring her, so Marinette took it as permission to ask her question. “Is the school really haunted?”

“Absolutely,” Pomeline said, closing her book and giving Marinette her full attention. 

“Have you seen the ghost?” Marinette asked.

“Not yet, but I will,” Pomeline said. “Have you ever seen a ghost?”

“Yes, but not here,” Marinette said, and  _ that  _ really got Pomeline’s attention, so Marinette told her the story of when she’d gone down into the catacombs with Alix, Kim, Max, and Nathaneal. Pomeline listened with rapt attention as Marinette described the encounter; it was the monster interested her roommate had ever been in anything Marinette had said. When Marinette finished her story Pomeline started telling her about her efforts to summon the ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot, who she believed was haunting the school.

It was an odd sort of common ground, but it was common ground nonetheless, and Marinette was glad for it. By the time they both went to bed she felt like she’d made a friend, or at least an ally. She still felt lost, but maybe that was okay for now. 

~~ ⩙⩙⩙ ~~

Her first day of classes went slightly better than her move-in day. Aside from the rain the morning started with, that is. It’d been so dark it may as well have been night, and even with her self guided tour the previous day she might still have gotten lost if not for the prefect who’d crossed her path. He’d introduced himself as Kyle and offered to give her a proper tour of campus after the welcome assembly.

The classes themselves were...interesting. Her history class was very much centered on Gotham, and while it seemed like Gotham had some pretty interesting history behind it she was lacking the foundational American history that all of her classmates seemed to have. She wondered if Gotham Academy had a tutoring program she could get help from.

At lunch Marinette ended up sitting with Kyle and his little sister, a first year named Mia, or Maps, as most people called her. She was a tiny ball of energy, and Marinette found herself laughing for the first time in ages at the little girl’s antics. She also learned that Kyle’s girlfriend, Olive, was a history tutor, and could probably help Marinette out with catching up. Though, Olive didn’t end up joining them at lunch, and Marinette sensed a bit of tension between the three of them.

By the time the assembly rolled around, Marinette was feeling a lot more optimistic about Gotham Academy. Maybe her Nonna had been right all along, and she just needed a change of scene. She sat with Pomeline and her friends, and not even the procession of boring speeches could bring her mood down. Though there was a rather terrifying moment where, just after the chapel bell started ringing, Maps and Olive appeared outside the window, dangling from a rope and completely derailing Bruce Wayne’s speech.

Apparently this was the most interesting thing to ever occur during one of Wayne’s speeches. 

~~ ⩙⩙⩙ ~~

Marinette had just gotten to sleep when she was awoken by a strange noise. At first she thought it was just the usual old building noises, but then she heard it again and realized that Pomeline was in the process of sneaking out.

“Pom?” Marinette asked, keeping her voice low. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing, nothing. Go back to sleep Marinette,” Pomeline said. But it was too late for that now, Marinette was awake and she would be staying that way.

“And what are you  _ wearing _ ?” Marinette asked, eyeing the oversized robe with distaste. It looked like the sort of thing a cult member might wear, and that mask was  _ not  _ helping things.  _ Wait… _ “Mon dieu, you’re in a cult, aren’t you?”

“I’m not in a cult!” Pomeline said, pulling her bat shaped mask up so that Marinette could see her face. “It’s more of a secret society, The Order of the Bat. I was going to invite you to join, actually.”

“...what do you do?” Marinette asked. Joining a maybe cult wasn’t something she ever would have done in Paris, but...well, she wasn’t in Paris anymore. She was a new version of Marinette, and she liked Pomeline enough to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Currently? We’re trying to summon and bind the spirit of Millie Jane to her burial site,” Pomeline said, moving to her closet and pulling out a second robe and mask. “So, are you in? Or do I need to start digging up dirt on you so that I can blackmail you into silence?”

“I’m in, but you have to let me redesign these robes. They’re awful,” Marinette said. Pomeline scoffed.

“They’re  _ mysterious _ , but fine. Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But you gotta wear it in the meantime. Secret societies need to be uniform.”

Marinette sighed, but she put on the cloak anyway. They snuck out together and met with two other members of the order before heading out into the woods and down into a secret crypt. Marinette wondered what her parents would think of it all, only to decide she didn’t care.

~~ ⩙⩙⩙ ~~

The Order of the Bat was retired by the very next night, when a fire broke out without warning. It was a bit of a disaster, and they were sworn to secrecy about what they had maybe witnessed, which was Olive Silverlock maybe setting a fire with her mind. Marinette wasn’t totally sure that that was what happened though.

What she  _ was  _ sure of was that she had now been made an accessory to breaking and entering, and she didn’t totally mind. Pomeline had decided to join forces with Olive and Maps to better hunt the ghost, and Marinette had been happy to tag along. Though the boy they’d brought in to help them break into the North Hall, Colton, made her a bit nervous. Pomeline had called him a liar, and while he didn’t seem anything at all like Lila, Marinette was still on edge the whole night.

When something grabbed Olive’s hand from within the giant pit, Marinette’s scream was extra loud.

After that night Marinette had been about ready to pass on all future ghost hunting expeditions. The revelation from Olive and Maps, that instead of a ghost there was a giant lizard man living in their walls, did not inspire Marinette to change her mind. Olive, however, did.

“You’re afraid to find Croc,” she said, sounding a bit sad but not surprised. “I promise he won’t hurt us, if that means anything.”

“I’m not afraid of getting hurt. Not really,” Marinette said, though she hadn’t realized it until Olive had said so. She  _ wasn’t  _ afraid of Croc, but she was afraid. Why was she afraid? “I...I’m not sure what I’m actually afraid of, honestly. This is just...this is so different than anything I’ve ever done before. I feel like I’ve been drifting away from who I was before, and that scares me, but so does trying to go back.”

“I get that,” Olive said, frowning. “I know exactly what you mean, actually.”

“Do you know what I should do about it?” Marinette asked, though she suspected she knew the answer.

“No,” Olive said, confirming Marinette’s thought. “But we could figure it out together, if you want.”

Marinette thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. She didn’t know who she wanted to be anymore, but she didn’t have to figure it out alone. “Okay.”

~~ ⩙⩙⩙ ~~

Then plan went surprisingly well, even if it led to their little group breaking and entering multiple times while in formal wear. Marinette had, admittedly, broken into a headmaster’s office before, but the puzzle lock that Hammerhead used to protect confiscated items was very different from anything Damocles had had. Not that it made the process of getting in more difficult.

Maps had many talents, and making puzzle locks near obsolete was apparently one of them.

When Colton first suggested they all take souvenirs from the room Marinette had thought it a bad idea, surely he’d notice he’d been robbed? But then she saw all the things inside the room, which seemed like it had been gathering contents since the school’s founding, and realized that they’d probably get away with it. Olive ended up with a crossbow, and Maps was fawning over a feather quill, and even Pomeline was admiring some silver necklaces.

“What about you, Nettie?” Colton asked. “Anything caught your eye yet?”

“No, but I don’t want to hold us all up,” Marinette answered.

“Oh! How about this?” Maps said, holding out a small silver object. Marinette took it carefully as the smaller girl bounced excitedly. At first Marinette thought it was a pocketwatch, but closer inspection revealed it to be a compass, and a very beautiful one at that. The metal had dulled with time, but with a bit of polishing she suspected it would shine brightly again. The casing was also covered with engravings of leaves and flowers, and on the back were the words  _ Time and chance occurs for all _ .

“It’s perfect,” she said, grinning as she pocketed it. “Thank you.”

Maps squealed in excitement, at least until Pomeline shushed her. “Sorry. Just got excited.”

~~ ⩙⩙⩙ ~~

Marinette had assumed that breaking into Hammerhead’s office for Colton’s bag of dubious items was going to be the most dangerous part of their night. They had made it through the tunnels without issue, and just as Olive had said, Croc made no move to hurt them. Then Batman showed up, who Marinette had heard about but hadn’t quite believed in. What sort of man dresses up as a bat to fight crime, she had thought. How could such a person be scary, she wondered.

She understood the fear now, if not the fashion choices.

It was hard to keep track of what was happening once the smoke bombs went off, but she had sort of seen the red and blue police lights, and she’d been panicking quite a bit even  _ before _ the bag of fireworks exploded and set the North Hall on fire. Colton pulled her back down into the tunnel where Maps and Pomeline were waiting, and Croc and Olive dropped down shortly after.

Marinette was relieved when they started making their way back through the tunnels, though her nerves returned when she realized that Croc and Olive were no longer following them. “Wait, we got split up!”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Croc knows where he’s going,” Colton said, “He’s been living here all summer.”

“But what if something happened? What if Batman followed us?” Marinette asked, and she could feel herself starting to spiral. “What if—”

“ _ Relax _ , Nettie,” Colton said, gripping her shoulders. “They’re fine, I promise. If something had happened, we would have heard it. Just breathe.”

Marinette listened, and she felt better for it. She was glad he’d cut off her spiral before it had gone on too long. Her old friends never really  _ stopped  _ her spirals, just rolled their eyes and called her dramatic afterward. They  _ certainly  _ never addressed her concerns. It was a nice change.

~~ ⩙⩙⩙ ~~

In the aftermath of that night, a lot had changed for Marinette. She had a lot of really solid friendships, for one thing. And these friends were different from her previous ones; they weren’t her friends because they had classes with her, they were her friends because they liked her as a person. Even if she didn’t know exactly the kind of person she was yet.

The Detective Club was more than just a group of friends though. They were the people who had her back no matter what, who she could lean on when she needed to, who would lean on her in return. They had faith in her, something no one else in her life had ever had, not even her parents. But there was more to family than blood, she was learning. Family was love and support and trust that ran bone deep.

It was something that she didn’t know she’d never really had until suddenly she did. 

Marinette was still lost. The future was a vast unknown, and her problems from Paris would still be there when she went back, something she knew she eventually  _ would  _ have to do. But she wasn’t alone. She’d found people that she could depend on, who could make any place home just by virtue of their being together. And that was all she needed for right now.

**Author's Note:**

> The words on the pocketwatch are the irl Wayne Family motto. I don't know if the fictional family uses the same motto or a different one, as wiki had no answers on what their motto in the comics is, but I liked the real one.
> 
> After learning the origin of Maps' cursed quill, I simply assume that Hammerhead has a collection of confiscated Wayne Family heirlooms.


End file.
